Newspaper vending machines are pervasive in every city for providing the latest newspaper edition. The newspaper vending machines come in various sizes and shapes, depending on the particular size and shape of the newspaper contained therein. Additionally, newspaper vending machines bear various indicia of advertisements, especially advertisements that identify the newspaper contained in the vending machine.
Newspaper publishers and distributors have a substantial financial stake in the sales of newspapers from vending machines. The common newspaper vending machine has a coin receipt for a purchaser to insert coins and open a front door of the vending machine. The purchaser then has access to the interior of the vending machine and may select a newspaper. Unfortunately, the purchaser also has access to all of the newspapers contained within the vending machine. Newspapers that are taken from the vending machine without a corresponding payment presents a burden to the newspaper publishers and/or the particular route managers assigned to the newspaper vending machine because of the lost revenue from those newspapers.
Additionally, the route managers have an intimate knowledge of the average number of newspapers vended by each specific vending machine. This allows the route manager to preplan for the number of newspapers required to be vended along a route and attempt to minimize the route manager's loss of sales. When a purchaser acquires more than the purchaser's paid share of newspapers, revenue is lost and creates a substantial variation in the route manager's newspaper requirements.
Numerous attempts have been made to create newspaper vending machines that individually dispense newspapers. An example of such a machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,346 (hereinafter referred to as "the '346 machine"). The '346 machine allows newspapers of various sizes to be individually vended each time a user deposits an appropriate amount of money into a money collection device. Despite numerous advantages over other conventional newspaper vending machines, the '346 machine has several disadvantages which limit its commercial practicability. For example, the '346 machine does not effectively utilize a display copy that is positioned in a traditional manner. A display copy of a newspaper is used both to promote the newspaper by showing the front page and to visually indicate to a potential purchaser that the newspaper vending machine is out of newspapers. Additionally, the '346 machine requires a pivotally attached top cover in order to gain access to the interior of the '346 machine. The '346 machine is thus limited to top opening vending machines.
Therefore, a need exists for a vending apparatus that effectively utilizes a display article. Further needed is a vending apparatus that is capable of individually dispensing articles from a set of stored articles. Further needed is a vending apparatus that is capable of dispensing the display article after the set of stored articles has been depleted. Further needed is a vending apparatus that is easily adapted and incorporated with conventional vending machines for individually dispensing articles from a set of stored articles and that is capable of dispensing the display article after the set of stored articles has been depleted.